Metagenomic insights into quorum sensing in membrane-aerated biofilm reactors for phenolic wastewater treatment
Yanzhuo Hu, Yanzhuo Hu, Yuansen Hu, Yuansen Hu, Yuanyuan Li, Ming Hui, Ziwei Lu, Hailong Li, Hailong Tian
Abstract
Quorum sensing (QS) is of crucial importance for the formation and performance of biofilms adhered to aerated membranes. In this study, the QS-related genes in membrane-aerated biofilm reactors (MABR) for phenolic wastewater treatment were investigated through high-throughput metagenomic sequencing. Results showed that numerous regulatory QS-related genes were associated with the production of signals including acyl-homoserine lactones (AHLs) and diguanylate monophosphate (c-di-GMP), indicating that the biofilms were potentially regulated by the AHL-mediated QS and c-di-GMP-mediated QS systems. Species and functional contribution analysis demonstrated that Pseudomonas, Achromobacter, Rhodococcus, Granulicoccus and Thauera were the key QS-related gene carriers. Redundancy analysis and Spearman correlation analysis showed that high influent phenolic loading gave rise to a high relative abundance of QS bacteria within the biofilm community. Thus, QS-related genes likely play an important role in strengthening biofilm resistance to phenolics, as well as the removal of phenolic contaminants.